Once Created, We Are Here to Stay. A Revolutionary New Outlook to Living.

Since our religions as well as our sciences promise us eternal life, in some form, since there are 'laws' concerning the conservation of matter and energy as well as talk of heaven, and hell and purgatory, possible destinations after we leave this life, we might as well believe what we are told.

To back up this belief, psychical research over the past 160 years has provided enough evidence for any court of law to prove our immortality. We just have to know a few more details, since the knowledge of life after death up until now is rather scanty. People who have had Near Death Experiences, religious visions or regressions into past lives give us glimpses of what lies beyond. We do not need to know much more, since we have enough going on in the world to preoccupy us.

Now, to name the time and place of the reality experienced after death, let's just call it simply, the Spirit World. So the Spirit World is here and now all around us, operating on another frequency It is in our houses, businesses, shops and theatres, on buses, trains and airliners, and especially in our churches, and during services many more spirits crowd in, including high spirits, angels as well as our so-called dead loved ones coming to look in on our lives, and perhaps to communicate with us, if it is a Spiritualist church.

The scientific community generally is not aware of any of this extra dimension to life, from which we receive consolation and inspiration For them, death is final, and there is nothing more, so making the most of life on earth is the best we can do.

Rather than waste time on speculation, we can read the accounts of the afterlife already published, given by the deceased loved ones known personally to those they have communicated with. The most recent of these authentic contacts with the so-called dead include Lutheran Pastor A.D. Mattson [ ''Evidence from Beyond'' (1999) and ''Witness from Beyond'' (1975) through the mediumship of Margaret Flavell] and a host of others through the mediumship of Stewart Alexander, Colin Fry, James Byrne, Stephen O'Brien, Lorna Byrne, Theresa Caputo, John Edward, James Van Praagh and Leslie Flint, to name a few of the excellent clairvoyants and psychics who have been able to be in touch with the Spirit World.

Once we have this confirmation of the ongoing nature of life, here and beyond, we can then look at the best way to spend our time here on earth until it is our time to pass. Clearing up unfinished business would be a priority, I would think, along with discarding projects which are of no lasting value to ourselves or or to others. Trivial pursuits, in other words.

Since life continues in the next world, we could also lay aside those investigations which could never be completed in this lifetime, or hand them on to future generations. We could carry on with those interests over there, and perhaps from there, help those on earth with their continuing investigations. This is a two-way process, and such contact will be a thing of the future.

All unsolved mysteries would be openly revealed in the next world, so there is no need to obsess about them here and now.

The guilty will receive their due, even though they might have got off scot free here.

Relevant to the elderly is the need to carry on with interests, hobbies, talents and skills right on into extreme old age, if we live that long. We don't desperately cling to them, and our possessions, but carrying on with them in the knowledge that they will continue to be there for us in the afterlife, even though we have to let go of our attachment of the physical person we love, or the valued treasures, furniture and artefacts we have possessed. Replicas of musical instruments we have played, and other tools of the trade, will be available in the Spirit World, so we really lose nothing that we truly value, or people we truly like and love. All we genuinely worked with here will be there to carry on with. We will meet people of like interests again, our loved ones and colleagues we are compatible with, while those not on our level will go elsewhere. Like attracts like: a universal law applies all the time. It is only on earth that we are jumbled together to learn to sort out our differences and appreciate the different qualities of things. No longer desperately clinging to life and fearing death, we can concentrate on enjoying life, and appreciating the best.

If all of us knew the facts, we would no longer go to war as a survival strategy or defence mechanism. Life is sacred, and there is no need to kill or steal from others to satisfy our wants and needs. So far human civilisation has spread over the world by predatory behaviour, invasion of territory and the killing off of all opposition, rather than merging and cooperating with others, through trade followed by missionary and development work. The profit motive in business is really most selfish and destructive, and interest and usury lead us far from spiritual values, and will retard our progress in the Spirit World if we do not reject them sincerely and honestly in this world. We will not find the million dollar bonus executives in any prominent position over there. They will be hidden away in some dark corner, trying to make amends for the lives they have ruined. No God is judging them, Their own state of mind will be enough to stir their conscience, without anyone else to judge them.

So there is much for each of us to examine in our lives, to see what is really worth-while. Searching and working to achieve excellence would be a start. Then we could start acquiring qualities of character and emotion, such as compassion, understanding and sensitivity, which would add value to our life here and hereafter.